Offense:
9

Defense:
0

Utility:
21

Introduction

To begin firstly I would like to dismiss some rumors about Aniva; many people believe she is a simple champ to play, others say she is one of the most difficult to play. Anivia is one of those champs that I find Easy to use, Difficult to master, and most importantly Devastatingly rewarding to those to choose her. Though it is true she has some of the lowest movement speed and health in the game those who are willing to understand her skills, how to chain them together, and who either ward or cant be observant of mini map she is far to easy to turn from strong to carry.

In my guide I wont tell you how to play Anivia, I feel everyone plays characters Differently, However I find great success in my matches played with her so I can only discuss how I play Anivia, give my reasons why, and hopefully inspire some of you to try her as well.

So please give feedback let me know if you have tried this build and If it worked for you, and feel try to comment on what works for you out in the fields of justice as well.

Pros / Cons

Here are with my build what you will find With Anivia in the world of Pros:
She has few if anyone she cannot handle in mid.
Her late game damage is to overbearing for even the strongest tanks
if her wall is used properly she can avoid any and all ganks
can easily stack Items with even assist so even when not making the kill your rewarded

For Anivia's main cons:
Early game her damage is impressive but stagnant until Archangels staff.
her movement speed is a problem for most
reliant on communication, wards, or superior map awareness
early game is nerve wracking even if you know what your doing

Runes

First In hopes of explaining my runes, Remember my Anivia (Like most in my opinion) needs to be late game focused, you farm minions easier than most teams combined; with that being said:

Magic Pen reds: and obvious choice, these will dramatically improve damage early game and can carry your Magic Pen stat until void staff eventually Maximizes it for you.

Mana per 5 / per level yellows: With these at level 4 they give the same benefit as the flat mana per level quints and sense you will be keeping your Glacial storm up often late game these are a NOTICEABLE difference then when I used to use the Flat regen seals.

Flat Ability Power Blues: I know I keep preaching "late game this and late game" however these will add a nice touch of damage for the beginning of the game enabling early kills, one or two deaths on the opponents mid and you cannot be stopped at any point of the game early, mid or late.

Flat Ability Power Quintessences: The same rules of logic apply for the Quints that did the Glyphs. These will help you establish early game Dominancy.

Summoner Spells

As For summoner spells I have ran most everything for anivia that makes sence, first allow me to remove from the pool the summoner spells that really will not benifit you at any point of your Anivia play.

Spells to Avoid:
Smite
Rally
Cleanse
Revive
Exhaust

That being said the summoner spells I choose are Teleport and Flash:

Teleport allows my Anivia to purchase Items and return to lain without the necessity of a mid cover potentially weakening your top and bottom lanes while you get your items (you Greedy mid you).

Flash allows my Anivia to either position yourself closer to surprise with a Flash Frost stun or even a better Glacial Storm setting, likewise it allows Anivia quicker escapes after Flash Frost, its particularly difficult to catch an Anivia who has Stunned you, Walled behind her, and Flashed to a safer Distance.

As for your other summoner spells:
Ghost can work similar to Teleport, with more late game usage you may ghost back to lane to reduce downtime, you can ghost up to flash frost or Glacial Storm, or ghost away.

Clairvoyance is nice to help avoid ganks, its quick cool down means you can easily help your top and bottom with a short ward every 30 seconds.

Clarity I do not recommend but some people like it, if you play wisely you will not need the extra mana, you'll find your using Clarity one maybe twice in the beginning then never again come late game.

Ignite is an interesting choice, SO many times has the enemy mid gotten away from me with only 20 or so health, however this will force a return to base for them, and I love to use this time to attack tower, keep them from exp, and feed on minion kills. SO if you like this aggressive game play this may be your choice.

Fortify, keeps your tower safe while you go back for items, has good synergy if your top and bottom need the help as well; I almost put this into the spells to avoid, but I have seen it used in well timed situations you can also trap them into getting themselves killed if you can "Egg Trap" them (Egg Trap for those who don't know is the utilization of "Rebirth" Anivia's passive ability to get an assisted kill from team mates, towers, or when you revive you personally deliver the final blow)

Masteries

Aniva in my opinion is far to "Squishy" to be taking a 21/0/9 build, besides there are too many Utility Masteries that will benefit you more, So I would like to explain my choice of Masteries.

The first argument I would like to address is when people look at my masteries they dismiss them because I did not pick up "Utility Mastery" but please let me explain:
As a Midd=ing character if you leave lane it must be for only the most important reasons, in my mind when their jungler (If they even have one) is leveling at the same rate as me, if I can pose a big enough threat to need the gank in mid from my opponents I can easily steal these buffs, let the opponents bring them to me, late game I can grab Golem Buff at my discretion. IF played correctly mana will not be a vital issue for this Anivia build and thus blue looses its all powerful Draw.

My Mastery choices are designed to maximize cool downs, as well as increase your mana regeneration, and minimize downtime of your important summoner spells.

My other variant of my masteries is to switch Spatial Accuracy with Haste in the utility tree if I choose to take Ghost over Teleport.

I find these masteries a solid build that work nine times out of ten for an Anivia in mid.

Skill Sequence

I wont dictate the exact Skill sequence to get because I know each game is different on every map However you must be aware that Frost Bite and Flash Frost are you Main sources of damage, in that order. Glacial Storm is a wonderful slow, minion slayer and applier of the "Chill" effect, however its damage is not that impressive compared to your Frost Bite and Flash Frost. If your enemies try to gank you more often you may wish to invest in an earlier level of Crystalize (I will explain this later in this guide)

If you choose to use the same Skill order as I have designed I think you should not have any issues in your Mid adventures, just remember to be polite, call your MIA and remember to check your map and chat for other MIA'S

Summary

NOW, the bread and butter, How to get your Anivia to shine on the battlefield. (again these tactics are designed for a late game focus with continual scaling in mind as well as a naturlly defensive mindset for your caster classes.

Early game:
I will always begin my early game with a Meki Pendant and One Red and Blue pot, this will be efficient enough to establish dominance, this mana regen is more important with your runes and mastery combos then the flag mana from the Sapphire Crystal. Here is the trick to playing Anivia in mid that most people don't pay attention too... you ready for it... MAXIMIZE MANA CONSERVATION WITH FLASH FROST SHOTS. Anivia is very mana hungry early game and thus, flash frost should be shot with minions in mind, shoot through minions to hit the opponent's, never use flash frost if it is not going to pass through minions. This is the most difficult time in the game for Anivia, if you can perfect early game, its over for the enemy team. Essentially your play style is to hang just to the left or right of your mage minions and pass your Flash Frost through both melee and Mage minions on the opponents side. If you believe you will land the Flash Frost Stun on your opponent close in for a quick frost bite, But NEVER CHASE, as Anivia you easily over extend play it safe and let the kills roll into you. by level 4 I can usually Half health most mid characters with a single Flash Frost Frost Bite combo. Anivia's Beauty in any lane is that you make the opponents desperate, once you hit level 6 your Ultimate keeps them exp and gold starved by keeping them next to tower and letting the tower eat up your minions so their options are to accept this defeat or try to just roll over you, thats when you pounce. JUST REMEMBER THE SMART TEAM WILL TRY A GANK OVER A STRAIGHT UP CHARGE METHOD so play defense early game.

Mid game:
Assuming you have been keeping mid at bay or better yet getting kills in mid, for Anivia Mid game starts once you have destroyed their middle tower, at that point the next time your mid opponent either returns to base or is not in mid GANK TIME STARTS. you can easily sneak in behind most lanes right in front of the enemy towers and charge right up behind the enemy for Flash Frost Stuns, Glacial Storm Slows, and Frost Bite Devastation. Just remember your main priority is still clearing mid so always watch your lane as priority if your team mates don't need your damage in that lane to be safe, don't steal their vital exp. Remember one Carry is good but a well rounded strong team with one DEVASTATING carry is even better.

Late Game:
Just continue mid game methods with a change in mind. If the enemy team has a nice strong set going on, or has one carry that is easily moving around the map, try to stick close to someone with crowd control, or a tank at all times, this will benefit both of you by chaining your stun and their cc or by having your tank initiate fights you can easily take down any problems that arise.

Later on I will explain some nice tricks Anivia can pull off but that is the summary of how your game should progress, Remember PLAY DEFENSIVELY, let the kills flow to you don't go hunting them down too often, you can play more aggressive when you have your Passive ready, but DONT GO CRAZY.

Items

For Items I would LIke to just explain how I purchase my Items I started off by showidng you my Ideal 6 Items But let me go into each one briefly and explain them for you as well as how i Purchase in a game.

Archangels Staff:
An obvious choice for Anivia, Scaling every time you use an ability, great mana per sec, and a GREAT unique passive, this item alone has carried me form early to late game without a problem on a good game.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity:
Great new item Because I work in Void staff for magic penetration I recommend this item for movement speed it adds a great level of Cool Down which will reduce your already shot cool downs even farther, A faster Frost Bite means almost 1.2 to 1.6 k Damage every 2 to 1.5 seconds late game. ENJOY!

Death Cap:
Another new and in my opinion OVERPOWERED caster Item when paired with archangels staff you will have a ridiculous amount of damage for only 3 items, a must have for any spike damage caster.

Soul stealer:
Because Anivia gains kills so easily stacking items are a no brainer, Anivia even gains assist without even trying soul stealer when gained 20 stacks its just unstoppable not to mention that with your new boots will make your frost bite almost a 1 sec cool down.

Void Staff:
Maximized your Magic Penetration as well as have a little ability power boost when paired with death cap any ability power is amazing so death cap takes this item from good to Great!

Leviathan:
I get more laughs about this item for Anivia than you probably realize but think about it logically, if you can get to the point where you have your other items I PROMISE you will not need any more ability power, so instead you will need ways to survive the 5v1 fights you may find yourself in when everyone on the enemy team focuses you. With all your kills and assist you can gain this items lovely passive and that damage reduction, when paired with your incredible damage output makes you a quasi-tank with a carries damage easily. Not to mention when you Die and Your passive is activated, your Egg still retains the Health and Damage reduction from the Leviathan once it is fully stacked, twice as nice.

When it comes to purchase order I will start off
1) Meki Pendant with a Red and Blue Pot
2) return once you have enough gold to purchase the tear of the goddess and/or basic boots
3) if you bought boots in number 2 just finish boots of lucidity if not don't return until you can buy these boots right out.
4) Blasting Rod
5) Archangels Staff
6) soul stealer or Needlessly large rod (if instead of soul stealer your rushing Death Cap, This item choice is dependent on if you are not having problems with early game kills, if you are the dominant one in your lane by far get soul stealer before death cap if you need more raw damage get the cap first)
7) Soul stealer (If you got the needlessly large rod first) or needlessly large rod (if you got soul stealer first)
8)Death Cap
9) Void staff Right out no need to build up to it trust me
10)Leviathan

that order gets me through most of my games easily.

Farming

Farming is a Simple thing for Anivia When your lane is in a straight forward mindset (no worries about ganks form bushes) place your Glacial Storm on top of both melee and mage minions and just enjoy the gold flow. In early game you will need to toggle on and off your storm to save mana DONT LET THIS DRAIN YOUR MANA TO DANGEROUS LEVELS. One of my farming tricks with Anivia is once you have the Archangels Staff you can start your Glacial storm and then shoot your Flash Frost, once Flash Frost is fired you can immediately shut off Glacial Storm then detonate Flash Frost on mage minions to wipe the ENTIRE WAVE!, if not just one or two auto attacks will pick up the remainder. Remember People fear your Storm because it applies the chill effect which leads to Frost Bites Double damage they will avoid it like the plague so use that to your farming advantage.

Team Work

When team fights become more and more common aniva takes a standard ranged caster carry position, you want to stay mid to far back of your team so that you always have escape routes, this also enables prime placements for your Crystalize when your team needs to get out of dodge. Your stuns from Flash Frost will leave you just enough time to Frost Bite and Kill, Your placement of Glacial Storm is almost right on top of the tank or whoever is being targeted with a little more space in front of them (Or whichever side is being attacked form)FROST BITE AWAY after that, pick up kills and assist as they come, just to state again DEFENSIVELY MINDED IS THE KEY. you need to always play like you have a twitch at your back, if you wanna become an amazing carry.

Unique Skills

Now I would like to Discuss some nice tricks you can do with Anivia that have been overlooked in play, or people are not taking advantage of.

1) Crystalize, one of your best spells when used properly or a wipe mechanic if used wrong, more and more players of Anivia get bullied out of playing her because of one or two bad wall placements For those of you who need a little help with this skill remember it has just a brief delay before the wall pops up so if walling IN ENEMIES you want to overshoot it a bit, when Walling OUT TEAMMATES if their running way you can safely pop it right on top of them and the delay will allow them to pass on the other side of it, its an art and like any art you need to practice it, there is no shame in bot matches in order to get the placement perfect.

2) what Crystalize does, REMEMBER when you pop crystalize in a bush or into fog of way It acts like a ward, revealing the location for a bit, if you pop it in a bush it will reveal the entire bush and a good location around it even if crystalize is level 1 !!!! So don't be afraid to scout with it.

3) sometimes all you need is one burst of your ultimate to get the kill remember when you shut off your ultimate there is a cool down so unless you need to it channel for a while start that cool down so its ready for when you need it again.

4) its rare but sometimes I feel like letting my teammates get a few kills Helps get you 2 carries on one team instead of just one, when that happens you can pop your crystalize to make the enemies move around it and blizzard dead center of the crystalize to slow them down this combination is surprisingly strong when it comes to crowd control if the enemy is just mindlessly clicking away from your team their character will walk all the way around in the blizzard and then you can hit them with a Flash Frost on the back end, all in all this will take the enemy almost 5 seconds to Get all the way out of the blizzard >:) enjoy the slow fest.

Closing

In closing this is my first build posted so please let me know how I did as well as how this worked out for you if you are an anivia enthusiast. remember DEFENSIVELY MINDED, map awareness, and mana conservation is the key to easy carry good luck and happy hunting you future birds of prey out there.